The start of a whole new life

So, there I go. My supervisor lives quite near my hometown, so I can drive with him to Germany. On the way, he tells me everything I need to know about the company, and by the time we get to the company, I have already had an information overload. Today, there is an important meeting, which I have to join. The meeting focuses on my main subject: the potential manure separation market. The coming five months I will research this market.

The first week in the office was interesting, but extremely exhausting. I slept 10 up to 11 hours every night. I had to get used to a new place to live, a whole new topic, because I know nothing about manure separation, a different keyboard, and I had to get used to the office life. Especially the first week, I thought that sitting still, on the same spot, inside, all day, was undoable. It is getting better now.
I was amazed by how I was welcomed. Everybody was so kind, and everybody tried to help me with literally everything. Just for me, they started speaking English instead of German when I was around, and I got a tour through the factory. In the weekend, I was allowed to join dinner with my host family. In the office, some people got assigned the task to take care of me, which they take extremely serious ;) The site is huge. There are about 1,800 people working, which is a lot compared to the fact that the city doesn't even have 30,000 inhabitants. My colleagues describe the village as very, very, very small, and very boring. I think they cannot imagine that my home village is only 3,000 inhabitants...

The second week already was easier. I got too know more what I was talking about, and I got an overview of what is expected from me. I had a meeting with the Market Intelligence department, which was helpful. At the end of the week, I went back to the Netherlands for the weekend, because I had an important retake on Monday. This gave me the opportunity to go to Leeuwarden, to visit the office there, because the second half of my internship I'll be working there. This is because of the fact that I have a Dutch contract, which makes it mandatory to spend at least half of the internship in the Netherlands.

When I came back to Germany, my colleague and landlord, Marc, arranged a bike for me, so I can go out to cycle. How nice! Moreover, I have a subscription for the swimming pool again. At least I won't be bored.

What I still cannot get used to is the hot meals for lunch in the canteen, but that will come. For now, I'm doing great here. It feels great to be off on the weekends, instead of having to work at part-time jobs and I'm finding my way around.

I'll keep you posted!